And now...a conference on caning!

I guess they have to discuss methods, etc....

MALAYSIA will be organising an international conference on the caning sentence for Muslim women.

The country recently caned three women for having illicit sex and the case is expected to fuel a debate over rising 'Islamisation' in Malaysia, where religious courts have been clamping down on moral offences, as well as applying a ban on Muslims consuming alcohol that had previously rarely been enforced.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had said that the caning of the three women 'is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in the future'.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the caning conference, organised through the Secretariat of Advocacy and Empowerment of Muslim Women, will discuss the caning sentence among Muslim countries.

'The ministry hopes that through the conference, which will be attended by ministers and experts, we can make a comparative study on whether the sentence is normally practised among Muslim countries,' she told reporters yesterday, after signing a memorandum of cooperation between the ministry and Oman's Social Development Ministry.